Manual focus

All done by hand.

Article 07/09 2020

Large format revisited

My experience with my Intrepid 4x5 never really progressed beyond unpacking the camera. That's changing!
Article 23/10 2017

Autofocus strategies

You can leave autofocus alone and let the camera decide. Or you can take control, using the AF to your advantage - and probably get better pictures.
Blog entry 26/11 2014

My life in 4x5

I supported a Kickstarter project where two guys are building an affordable large format camera, and soon I will own a 4x5 camera. That has raised quite a few questions.
Lens 21/09 2014

Industar 50mm f/3.5

A cheap Russian lens that I bought in Ukraine for almost nothing. Fully manual and fun to play with. Not sharp in any way and with a massive light falloff in the corners on full frame in particular. The Russians of course called this lens "The Eagle Eye"
Lens 05/03 2014

Petzval

A really peculiar lens with a very attractive appearance and a very different optical and mechanical construction. Haven't quite gotten the very pronounced and characteristic bokeh effect from it yet, but I'm working on it and love the feel and look of the brass lens.
Lens 27/11 2013

Nikon 50mm f/2.8 pancake

Another of Nikon's pancake lenses - a bright normal lens. Built to last, all manual, no electronics, but a lovely little lens.
Lens 11/09 2013

Minolta 24mm f/2.8

The first wideangle I owned, and a real gem: wide, sharp, good colors and built to last. The mechanics were world class and the optical quality followed close troop. It started my still lasting love for wideangle lenses.
Lens 10/09 2013

Minolta 35mm f/2.8 MD

I had this manual lens as one of the first ones for my Minolta bodies and remember its very good mechanical construction and oh so smooth focusing.
Lens 09/09 2013

Lensbaby Composer

The Composer is the "advanced" Lensbaby with better control. It's still a very odd lens with it's warped sharpness and exchangeable glasses.
Camera 05/09 2013

Nikon FE2

An old school Nikon film body that was given to me for free (really!). It's a rock solid, classical metal and leather, black and silver piece of work - and all my Nikon lenses work on it.

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